Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine

Cherise Boothe in "Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine" Photo by Monique Carboni.

Score 90%

By Donna Herman

When, and how, do the stories we tell about ourselves turn from fables to lies? And can we find ourselves again amidst the constructs we’ve built up? These are the questions Lynn Nottage asks in Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine, currently being revived by Signature Theatre. It’s no coincidence that the word “fabulation” is a term of art not only in psychology, but in literary criticism too. In medical or psychological usage, it describes the act of telling untruthful stories by a person who believes they are real or who cannot deal with real events. In literary criticism, it denotes a style that is similar to or combines magical realism and post modernism. It therefore combines realistic and unrealistic or fantasy elements in one work. Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine operates on both levels.

We are introduced to Undine (Cherise Boothe) at a pivotal moment in her life when the fabulous (pun intended) life she has built for herself begins to crumble around her. Undine Barnes Calles is THE public relations agent in NYC. She can make or break you, deliver the celebrity du jour to your event, and out alpha any male in the room. She has spent 14 years building her company, but it all falls apart overnight when she is in the middle of a big event and gets a visit from her accountant (Dashiell Eaves) and the FBI with bad news.

Undine learns that the downward spiral is a lot faster than the uphill climb. And the one absolutely unforgiveable sin in uptown society is being poor. Although she hasn’t been there in 14 years, Undine has no choice but to return to her roots in Brooklyn. Despite Thomas Wolfe’s assertion that “You can’t go home again,” Undine is forced to believe the line from Robert Frost’s poem “The Death of the Hired Man,” that “home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

But they don’t have to like it. Her brother Flow (Marcus Callender) is openly bitter and contemptuous of her abandonment and subsequent fall from her lofty perch. Her Mother (Nikiya Mathis) and Father (J. Bernard Calloway) are more forgiving but hurt at her rejection of them. And Grandma (Heather Alicia Simms) is just out of it. Undine has to try and reconcile the person she has become and the stories she has told about her upbringing, with the truth. And she has to adjust to her new circumstances and figure out who to be and how to survive.

Structurally, Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine belongs to a fabulation/magical realism style. Undine often breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience directly to let us know what is going on with her internally. Scenes morph into each other with props and set pieces being carried on and off stage with no break in the action. Certain characters are pure symbols. Like her husband Hervé (Ian Lassiter), who is a caricature of a Latin lover. We are introduced to him during a fourth wall break where Undine is remembering her meeting him. They tango on the set that is her office in the current day (and what a tango it is, wow! Kudos to choreographer Valeria Solomonoff.), and then he fades away and the office scene resumes.

If Lynn Nottage wrote a prescription, I’d buy a ticket – I know it’d cure what ails me. She brings razor edged clarity to everything she writes, and undeniable truth. In Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine, she also has a gleam of fun in her eye. Despite the serious questions she raises, she also allows us to laugh without feeling guilty about it and imbues all of her characters with humanity and a saving grace or two. Lileana Blain-Cruz has done a masterful job staging this complex piece smoothly and elegantly. She gets an able assist from the Set Design by Adam Rigg and Lighting Design by Yi Zhao which makes the scene transitions easy and not clunky.

Cherise Boothe knocks it out of the park as Undine. She navigates the total transformation her character goes through, from large and in charge to beaten down and confused to finding a new path, nimbly and believably every step of the way. The rest of the cast, who all play multiple roles, are a great ensemble that create specific, distinct characters. They are aided by Costume Designer Montana Levi Blanco and Hair and Wig Designer Cookie Jordan to such an extent that I was unable to identify who played the 14 characters not attributed in the Playbill but listed in the script. Bravo to all.

Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine by Lynn Nottage, Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz

Review

90%

Fabulation, or the Re-education of Undine

About The Author

Donna Herman is a native New Yorker and a self-confessed theater addict. It all started in her childhood, which was spent on movie and television sets and in dark empty theaters while her mother, an actress, and her father, a make-up artist and playwright/screenwriter, worked. She knew she wanted to be an actress at 4 years old while on location with her father who was working on the movie “West Side Story.” They were filming the “Officer Krupke” number on the street and Donna was inside the police barricades being helpful and pressing the lever on the coffee urn for the crew. Meanwhile, the kids from the neighborhood were pressed against the sawhorses looking in. She knew then she always wanted to be on the inside. But it wasn’t until her 8th birthday when she saw her first Broadway show, “My Fair Lady,” that she fell prey to her addiction.
Donna went on to act throughout her school career and attended Boston University’s School of Fine Arts Theater Program where she studied Acting and Directing. After graduation, she returned to NYC and began the life of a struggling actress. She was fortunate enough to originate the role of Chang in John Jesurun’s downtown cult serial classic play “Chang In A Void Moon” which performed a new episode at The Pyramid Club on Avenue A every Monday night for almost a year in the 80’s. Many downtown notables were in the cast including Steve Buscemi, Black-Eyed Susan, David Cale, Greg Mehrten, and Anna Kohler.
While pursuing acting, Donna made money by working in recording studios and eventually got hired full time to manage Spyro Gyra’s new recording studio when Julian Lennon was recording his first album there. From there she became the Production Coordinator on the film of his concert tour for his production company. This led her to a job with the award winning audio post production facility where she stayed for 12 years and was the Controller. From there she went to Charlex, Inc. an award winning special effects and design company for the advertising industry, where she was the CFO and stayed for 17 years.
But her love for the theater has never waned and living in New York, she has always been able to indulge it. She has even been called to revise her role as Chang occasionally over the years, the latest for episodes 59 to 61 in 2015. She is now looking to get back to a more creative life and reviewing theater and designing jewelry.